Kurds in Iraq

Kurds are the second largest ethnic group of Iraq. They traditionally speak the Kurdish languages of Sorani, Kurmanji, Feyli and also Gorani.

Historically, Kurds in Iraq have experienced varying degrees of autonomy and marginalization. While the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) proposed Kurdish independence, this was never implemented, and Iraqi Kurds were incorporated into the modern state of Iraq. Following the withdrawal of the Iraqi Army from the Kurdistan Region in 1991, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was established, and ultimately recognized by the Iraqi government in 2005, granting the region a degree of self-governance. Iraqi Kurdistan remains a significant political and cultural entity within Iraq.

The Kurdish people are an ethnic group whose origins are in the Middle East. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world that do not have a state of their own. This geo-cultural region means "Land of the Kurds". Kurdistan Region is a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq has a population of approximately 6 million people. Kurdish populations occupy the territory in and around the Zagros Mountains. These arid unwelcoming mountains have been a geographic buffer to cultural and political dominance from neighboring empires. Persians, Arabs, and Ottomans were kept away, and a space was carved out to develop Kurdish culture, language, and identity. Arabs applied the name "Kurds" to the people of the mountains after they had conquered and Islamicized the region.

Several Kurdish dynasties such as Annazids (990/1–1117) and Hasanwayhids (or Hasanuyids, 959–1015) ruled in northern Iraq. The Kurdish Marwanid dynasty (983–1096) temporarily ruled over Mosul. The Ayyubid dynasty, was a powerful Islamic dynasty of Kurdish origin and also ruled northern Iraq.

In the 1500s, most Kurds came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, where they were governed as part of the empire's administrative structure. Iraqi Kurds began to emerge as a distinct subgroup of the Kurdish population following the creation of the modern state of Iraq by Great Britain under the terms of the Sykes–Picot Agreement during World War I.

The Kurdish expectation of independence, promised in the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, was short-lived. In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne established the Republic of Turkey, redefining borders and negating provisions for a Kurdish state. Similarly, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922, which laid the groundwork for Iraqi independence, did not include any guarantees for Kurdish autonomy.

In 1946 the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) was founded by Mulla Mustafa Barzani which pushed for Kurdish autonomy under the Iraqi government. In the year 1958, Abdul Karim Qasim made a coup against the British and the Republic of Iraq was established. The Kurds had hoped that now they would receive their promised rights, but the political environment was not favorable. So the KDP began an insurgency against the Government in Baghdad in 1961. Their insurgency was in part successful as in 1966 official Kurdish groups gained some rights with the Bazzaz Declaration and with the 1970 Peace Accord a principle of Kurdish autonomy was reached. In the 1970 Peace Accord, Kurdish cultural, social and political rights were recognized within fifteen points. These rights were never implemented, not due to unwillingness on the part of the Arabs, but rather because of political developments^{[citation needed]}. Nevertheless, the Kurds had a period of greater liberty from 1970 to 1974. But in March 1975 the Iraq and Iran reached an agreement and within a few hours after the agreement, Iran stopped all support to the KDP, whose members and their families had the choice between go to exile to Iran or surrender to the Iraqi authority. Most KDP members chose to live in exile and the KDP declared the end of their insurgency. Therefore, in 1975, another political party emerged in Iraqi Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani—the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Since the PUK was established, it lacked cooperation and engaged in violent conflict with the KDP over differing philosophies, demographics, and goals. From March 1987 until 1989 the Anfal campaign lasted, with which the Kurds were supposed to be Arabized. During the Anfal campaign the Iraqi military attacked about 250 Kurdish villages with chemical weapons and destroyed Kurdish 4500 villages and evicted its inhabitants. The campaign culminated in the Halabja massacre in March 1988.

After the Gulf War and an unsuccessful Kurdish uprising in 1991, Kurds fled back to the mountains to seek refuge from the government forces. The United States established a no fly zone initiative in Iraqi Kurdistan for the Kurds as an asylum away from the Iraqi government. United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 in 1991 condemned and forbade "the repression of the Iraqi civilian population... in Kurdish populated areas." After many bloody encounters, an uneasy balance of power was reached between the Iraqi forces and Kurdish troops, ultimately allowing Iraqi Kurdistan to function independently. The region continued to be ruled by the KDP and PUK and began to establish a stable economy and national identity. Iraqi Kurdistan built a socioeconomic infrastructure from scratch, completely independent from the centralized framework of Ba'athist Iraq. Though civil war broke out in the north between Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan from 1994 to 1998, Kurds were still able to maintain a democratic and prosperous foundation for their region.